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Kimon de Greef

Kimon de Greef is a journalist from South Africa and the author of The Ego Trip, an investigative nonfiction book about psychedelic toads, forthcoming for Doubleday in August 2026. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York, The New York Times, The Guardian, Guernica, National Geographic and other publications. He has coauthored a book about abalone poaching and holds a conservation biology master’s from the University of Cape Town.

Some of his recent stories involved a Syrian raccoon trapper in New York, the rise and fall of a charismatic toad-smoking evangelist, the dystopian underworld of illicit gold mining in South Africa, the rivalrous underworld of songbird smuggling (featured by NPR) and the harmful supply chain for white sage. He has also written about gang violence, corruption, food delivery work, racing pigeons, sea cucumbers and donkey rustling.

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